A known deflector apparatus for a vehicle disclosed in US2008/246306 (hereinafter referred to as Patent reference 1) is mounted on a front edge portion of an opening portion formed on a roof portion of the vehicle so as to rise and stand above a surface of the roof portion in a projecting manner, for example, when a movable panel movable so as to open and close the opening portion is opened. The known deflector apparatus includes a fixed frame which is provided along the front edge portion of the opening portion and is fixedly attached to a mounting frame of the opening portion, and a movable frame which is connected via a pivot device to the fixed frame in a pivotable manner and is movable relative to the fixed frame between a retracted position and a deployed position. A mesh member having flexibility and a permeability is provided between the fixed frame and the movable frame. When the movable frame moves to the deployed position, the mesh member is pulled by the movable frame and projects above the surface of the roof portion together with the movable frame. At least a part of a surface of the mesh portion allows air to flow therethrough.
According to the known deflector apparatus disclosed in the Patent reference 1, a connecting method including a clamp, welding, sewing, bonding, inserting or the like is used in order to connect end portions of the mesh member to the fixed frame and/or to the movable frame (a connecting element). Thus, a connecting process is needed where the mesh member and the frames that are manufactured independently from one another are connected to one another, which may increase a manufacturing man-hour. In addition, a relative positional misalignment between the mesh member and the frames is likely to occur during the connecting process, and thus, for example, wrinkles may occur on the mesh member. In this case, an appearance of the mesh member, when the mesh member projects above the surface of the roof portion together with the movable frame, may be impaired.
A need thus exists for a deflector apparatus for a vehicle, which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.